Driver in Quincy school bus crash arraigned

Friday

Jan 13, 2017 at 12:01 AMJan 13, 2017 at 7:12 AM

Neal Simpson The Patriot Ledger @nsimpson_ledger

QUINCY - He wasn’t drunk or using his phone, but police say school bus driver Mark Woods was still driving negligently before an October crash that sent five children to the hospital and left a trail of debris along Quarry Street.

New details about the crash emerged Thursday as Woods, 58, was arraigned in Quincy District Court on charges of negligent driving and leaving marked lanes stemming from the crash. He was released on his promise to return to court Feb. 28.

Woods was driving a city school bus carrying 32 students from the Bernazzani Elementary School on Oct. 25 when, according to police, the bus veered off Quarry Street, knocked over a fire hydrant and a utility pole, hit a car and slammed into the side of a house. Woods and five students were taken to the hospital for minor injuries. All were released later that day.

Six days after the crash, and after police and state Registry of Motor Vehicles inspectors had ruled out mechanical issues as a cause of the crash, Quincy police cited Woods with negligent operation and a marked-lanes violation. A criminal complaint was issued in December after a closed-door clerk magistrate’s hearing.

In a report filed in court Thursday, Sgt. James Flaherty wrote that Woods told him the crash was a “blur” and that he couldn’t remember why the bus veered off the road or how it ended up on the sidewalk. But he said he remembered the bus heading toward a sedan approaching Quarry Street from a side street while Woods did “everything possible to try to get the bus to turn left and back onto the road.” Woods told him the bus wouldn’t respond.

“He said he turned the wheel and stood on the brake,” Flaherty, who is trained in crash reconstruction, wrote in the report. “After hitting the car the bus went back on the street but still wouldn’t stop and he was heading for the house.”

Woods told Flaherty the bus “dropped” from underneath him as it shot over a wall and finally came to rest against a house. He said good Samaritans helped the children out of the back of the bus because the door by his seat wouldn’t open.

Flaherty said inspectors later determined that three of the bus’s four brakes were still working despite damage from the crash and that the fourth “more likely than not” was also working beforehand. He said inspection reports on the bus, which is one of the Quincy fleet’s oldest, were also up to date and accurate.

Flaherty said police also inspected Woods’ phone, which they seized immediately after the crash, and determined that he had not been using it while driving. Police also found no evidence that he was impaired by drugs or alcohol.

One witness told police she’d seen the school bus Woods was driving shortly before the crash take an erratic left turn from Copeland Street toward Quarry Street and go up over a curb and across the grass in front of a house on the corner. The witness told police she thought it was “odd” at the time and decided to report it later after hearing about the crash.

Woods was placed on paid administrative leave following the crash, but it was not clear Thursday whether he was still employed by the school department. Superintendent Richard DeCristofaro did not return a call seeking information about Woods’ employment status.

If Woods is found guilty of negligent operation, he could face up to two years in jail and a $200 fine plus a 60-day suspension of his driver’s license.

Reach Neal Simpson at nesimpson@ledger.com or follow him on Twitter @NSimpson_Ledger.